Candidates in a handful of other close Senate races squared off in their final debates last night. We're going to hear some of what they had to say in three states: Virginia, Connecticut and - first - Missouri.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Last night in a St. Louis suburb, Republican Congressman Todd Akin's controversial remarks about what he called legitimate rape did not explicitly come up as he debated Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill. McCaskill was asked this question, eliciting laughter from the audience: What will the national press say about Missouri voters if your opponent is elected? Her answer: I don't really care.

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BLOCK: In his response, Congressman Akin took issue with that characterization of him as out of touch with most Missourians.

SIEGEL: Now on to Virginia. Two former governors, Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican George Allen, who was a U.S. senator, met on the campus of Virginia Tech, and they debated their stances on taxes, defense cuts and deficit reduction, though, as moderator Jay Warren pointed out, those stances were not always clear. Here he is pressing George Allen on a question about the plan to reduce the national debt proposed by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles.

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SIEGEL: That's from last night's Virginia U.S. Senate debate between Democratic Tim Kaine and Republican George Allen.